Acting Director of Communications of the National Identification Authority (NIA), ACI Francis Palmdeti, has revealed that the mop-up exercise for the Ghana Card registration has become necessary as a result of its inability to meet stipulated target.
Speaking in an interview, Mr. Palmdeti noted that the Authority, failed to capture its target of 80 percent of the population in the country.
“We had already planned some things just after the voters’ registration. These are the issuance of cards to those who have registered but haven’t received the card and also do a mop-up in some regions because our target was to meet 80% of the registration population in any district and in any region. We didn’t meet the target so our board decided that we needed to go round the country again to try and do a mop-up across the country so we are able to meet our target of 80%.”
According to him, the NIA has completed a mop-up of 12 out of the 16 regions of the country.
“We have already done Upper West, Upper East, Ashanti, Central, Western North, Western, Volta, and Oti Regions. We are left with Greater Accra, Bono, Bono East, and Ahafo Regions. We are starting the Greater Accra on 24th August and end on the 8th of September and then start Bono on 27th September and end on the 8th of October.”
Commenting on the importance of the card, he cautioned Ghanaians to participate in the registration exercise, particularly those who haven’t done so already.
“The law in this country about identification is the NIA Act so when you take our regulations LI 2111 which talks about the National ID card talks about the mandatory use of the card indicates 17 services in which you can only access with the NIA card. So in applying for a passport, you need the Ghana card, Driver’s license you need the NIA card, opening a bank account, you also need the NIA card, registering as a voter, paying taxes, insurance, pensions, land transactions, services and applications from State institutions, all you need the NIA card. All these services will require you to use the NIA card when it comes to identification.”
The Authority was seeking to register over 16 million Ghanaians.
NIA had registered 11,063,259 eligible Ghanaians as of the time the exercise was discontinued in the Eastern Region in April 2020.
Meanwhile, The National Identification Authority (NIA) has introduced two packages for individuals who are unable to register for the national ID cards during the nationwide free mass registration exercise to do so at a fee.
The two packages, institutional and premium, would be done at GH₵100 and GH₵250 respectively. They are expected to be made available after December 2020 when the mop-up registration exercise is completed.
The Chief Executive Officer of the NIA, Prof Ken Attafuah made this known in a radio interview on Accra-based Joy FM on Tuesday, June 30, 2020.
According to him, the institutional package could be done at home or office, while the premium package could be done at a facility such as a hotel, of the applicant’s choice.
He said the premium package would come with comforting facilities such as air-condition, some coffee, tea or Milo in a serene environment.
“Organisations can write to the NIA through the Executive Secretary for us to come and do institutional registration [for them]. That is at a fee of GH₵100 per person. You can also invite us to your home as long as the persons in your home are more than five. We can come and register at home also at a fee of GH₵100 per person. In terms of both, the logistics and distance we cover will also be picked up by the applicant.
“There is also premium registration, which is available. We set up a centre at Movenpick or Golden Tulip or wherever where we can go and register at a fee of GH₵250. There are options, but all that we do at the mass registration centres are all free,” he added.
